e put it into the fire, but it was not consumed;
he put it into a mill, but it could not be pounded; he placed it
upon an anvil and struck it with a hammer, but the anvil split
and the hammer was broken. (See also Zohar in "Genesis," 206,
etc. etc.)

"A window shalt thou make to the ark" (Gen. vi. 16). Rabbi Amma says,
"It was a real window." Rabbi Levi, on the other hand, maintained that
it was a precious stone, and that during the twelve months Noah was in
the ark he had no need of the light of the sun by day nor of the moon by
night because of that stone, which he had kept suspended, and he knew
that it was day when it was dim, and night when it sparkled.

_Bereshith Rabbah_, chap. 31.

The transparency, ascribed to the ark, has given rise to various
conjectures. The idea of Rabbi Levi, that it was a precious
stone, has the sanction of the Targum of Jonathan; which
volunteers the additional information that the gem was found in
the river Pison.

Noah was deficient in faith, for he did not enter the ark till the water
was up to his ankles.

Ibid., chap. 32.

"And he sent forth a raven" (Gen. viii. 7). The raven remonstrated,
remarking, "From all the cattle, beasts, and fowls thou sendest none but
me." "What need has the world for thee?" retorted Noah; "thou art good
neither for food nor for sacrifice." Rabbi Eliezer says God ordered Noah
to receive the raven, as the world would one day be in need of him.
"When?" asked Noah. "When the waters are dried up from off the earth,
there will in a time to come arise a certain righteous man who shall dry
up the world, and then I shall want it." This explains what is written
(1 Kings xvii. 6), "And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the
morning."

Ibid., chap. 33.

At the time God said to the serpent, "Upon thy belly thou shalt go"
(Gen. iii. 14), the ministering angels descended and lopped off his
hands and his feet. Then his voice was heard from one end of the world
to the other.

_Bereshith Midrash Rabbah_, chap. 20.

When God said to the serpent, "And upon thy belly thou shalt go" (Gen.
iii. 14), the serpent replied, "Lord of the universe! if this be Thy
will, then I shall be as a fish of the sea without feet." But when God
said to him, "And dust shalt thou eat," he replied, "If fish eat dust,
then I also will eat it." Then God seized hold of the serpent and tore
his tongue in two, and said, "O thou wicked one! thou ha